Ever Since That First Encounter
by IchigoHatake
Summary: As May watches Dawn's performance in the Hoenn Grand Festival, memories flood into her mind and she realizes her love for Dawn. Later, as they start traveling together, she has a desire to buy a house and live with Dawn. But along with that proposition, she'll have to state her true feelings. Will Dawn accept? First attempt at a sapphirepearlshipping one-shot. Please review. Enjoy!


Dawn and I had started traveling together ever since I met up with her in Hoenn. After beating Drew in the final round of the Johto Grand Festival and becoming top coordinator, I'd decided that wanted to mind down at home for a while, so I boarded a ship to Johto. And when I returned and heard news that Dawn would be competing in the Hoenn Grand Festival a week after the day I returned, I knew I had to attend it and watch her shine.

I wasn't disappointed. Dawn elegantly battled her way to the semi-finals, battling Kenny for a spot in the final two. She managed to defeat him in the end, and would be battling against Nando for the title of top coordinator. Throughout this battle, I noticed something strange. Not with them. With me. As I stared at Dawn, cheering her on, a strange, unfamiliar emotion bubbled up within me. I was smiling at her like an idiot and my heart was beating fast. All the signs of having a crush on someone...

At first, I had tried to convince myself that those emotions must be directed at Nando, but whenever I looked at him, all I could think about was how I wanted Dawn to crush him and win this thing. In that moment, I realized that I was developing a crush on Dawn. And that thought terrified me.

I thought back to my encounters with Drew, and how I'd had similar feelings towards him during our Johto adventures. We had traveled together as rivals and teased each other, slept under the stars together, even come close to an accidental kiss once when I had tripped on a rock and fallen on him. If I was crushing on Drew, that would mean I'm straight, right? And I'd never felt any sort of attraction to a girl before.

But Dawn had that sort of magnetic pull on me. And it felt slightly stronger than what I'd felt with Drew.

As I stared down at the talented blunette, memories of my first meeting with her back in Sinnoh flashed through my mind. We'd almost immediately become friends, and I had really enjoyed spending time with her. We battled together as a team and had a heart-to-heart bonding at our all-girl sleep-over along with Zoey. We had gone shopping together and laughed together. And...now that I think of it...whenever she touched me...it made me happy. I wanted us to be able to get closer.

It was all slowly sinking in and I suddenly felt very uneasy. I adjusted in my seat and stared down at my feet instead of at the battle. Was that really true? I liked Dawn. If that was the case, what was I supposed to do? She's so pretty and girly and it's obvious that plenty of guys are drooling all over her. And she doesn't seem like she's lesbian or even bisexual (although I had a feeling like Zoey might like her a little).

It was then that I decided to keep these feelings in and just let them pass. Let them go. If I was able to form a crush on Drew, and in the past, Ash, then I was bisexual and could easily choose the path I wanted to go down. So, I could maintain a friendship with Dawn and forget about those weird feelings. In fact, I wanted to ask her to travel with me after this whole Grand Festival was over.

I glanced up at the clock and gasped as I saw there were only 15 seconds left. Dawn smirked at Nando and used Piplup and Quilava for one final combination. And with that, the time was up. At first, I had been skeptical of her choice of Piplup and Quilava as a team, but she...she used my water and fire fusion technique from our tag battle as her final move. My heart stopped for a second.

"And the winner of this year's Hoenn Grand Festival is...it's DAWN!" The MC called out.

The crowd cheered, but there was no one louder than me. "Way to go, Dawn! I knew you could do it! Congrtulations!"

I must have been even louder than I thought, because Dawn turned and looked directly at me. She was a bit surprised since I hadn't told her I'd be watching her in the festival. But she soon calmed down and smiled at waved at me.

I felt like a proud mother as I watched her receive the ribbon cup, a symbol that she was a top coordinator. We'd both reached our dreams. And boy, did she look excited. A huge smile was plastered on her face and I swear I saw tears of joy glistening in her eyes. She waved cheerfully at all the screaming people and once the applause calmed down, she exited the stage along with her Pokémon.

I managed to squirm my way out of the crowd of people and out into the entrance hall. People with chatting and roaring with laughter, some people handing money over to each ther, having betted on the winner of the festival. The smell of sweat started building up as more bodies filed in, each sweating from the hot sun that had been blazing in through the top of the festival dome. I ignored the smell and scanned the room, searching for Dawn.

I finally spotted her, surrounding by fans and standing beside who I believed to be her mother. I walked over and as soon as she saw me, she smiled and waved for me to come over. I politely made my way through the crazed fans and stood in front of Dawn.

She carried on about how good in was to see me, introduced me to her mom, and we spent some time catching up, each of us telling stories of our Grand Festival win and how it felt. Her mother, Johanna, invited me to her Hotel room where the three of us talked. Eventually, Dawn's mother had to return to Sinnoh and the two related blunettes said their heart-felt goodbyes.

Some where along the way, I'd managed to ask Dawn if she wanted to travel with me, to which she quickly agreed. So I'd introduced her to my parents, said goodbye to said parents, and now, back in the present, we were at a Pokémon Center in Unova and not exactly traveling. After having won, we weren't motivated to coordinate, so we'd decided to just relax and hang out together until we decided what our next goals would be.

It was a pleasant, sunny day in Accumula Town and all was calm at the Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy had been kind enough to let us stay here for a week. But I knew we'd have to leave here soon. We couldn't live out our days in a Pokémon Center forever. And I had an idea...but I'm afraid if I proposed said idea, my feelings for Dawn might come pouring out. But I didn't want to trouble Nurse Joy anymore.

I walked up to Dawn, blushing. She smiled at me. "What's up, May? You look like you want to tell me something."

"Yeah," I weakly responded. "Nurse Joy has been offering free food and allowing us to stay, but we can't just stay here forever. And it's obvious that we're done with coordinating so..."

"So?" Dawn asked as I trailed off.

"Well...maybe we could," I gulped. "There's a house here in Accumula begging for someone to buy it. So...we're old enough to live on our own now (A/N: I'm messing with their ages if you can't tell) and...why don't we buy a house and live their together?"

I must have been blushing madly because Dawn stared at me in shock. "Y-You're face is all red, May. Do you...? I mean...if you want us to live together..."

I groaned and decided to spill the beans. I couldn't take it anymore. "I know this is sort of out of nowhere and this might completely destroy the friendship we've built...and I doubt you feel the same way...but I think I love you, Dawn! I..I really love you. All I want to do is see you smile...and those days when we were together in Sinnoh...they made me really happy. I fell in love with you back then. And...well..you're probably straight, right? I mean, all those guys chasing after you, so-"

I was interrupted as Dawn kissed me on the cheek. I found myself unable to speak and I became weak in the knees. Dawn...had just kissed me. On the cheek, yeah, but...

I looked at her in shock and Dawn blushed a bit. "Well...I guess this makes me bisexual or whatever, but...I enjoyed our time together too, May. I never said anything for the same reasons. The way you described that Drew guy...I was sure you were straight and I was beating myself up for falling in love with another girl. And I was wondering what was wrong with me and-"

I interrupted _her_ this time. Only when I kissed her, I didn't go for the cheek. I went for the lips. Though I was only brave enough to peck her, I enjoyed those short few seconds, her soft lips pushing against mine. My heart was beating fast as I locked eyes with her nervously, scared to see her reaction to my bold move.

She started laughing for some reason. "You look so scared. Haha! It's kind of funny. Oh, that face!"

"Hey! Don't laugh at me!" I hissed. "I was scared because I thought you'd reject me..."

"But I already accepted your feelings," Dawn pointed out. She intertwined her hand in mine and smiled. "So...you're right, this is all kind of crazy, but...let's move in together. Maybe there's something bigger than contests we can work towards."

I started sobbing, but in a happy way. I was so relieved. I had never expected this outcome. I wiped my tears with the back of my free hand and squeezed her hand tight. "Yeah. I'd like that...a lot."

Dawn wrapped her arms around me, locking me in her embrace. I hugged her back, hoping to never let her go.

"Hey, May?" she purred as I began to stroke her hair.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I almost forgot to say it. I love you too. So...can you stop crying already? You're soaking my hair."

I laughed nervously, not having realized that I was still crying like a baby. "Sorry about that. I'm just so happy."

"Geez," Dawn sighed. "If this makes you happy, I can only imagine how much you'll cry when we have a real kiss."

"EH?! SO THE PECK DOESN'T QUALIFY AS A "REAL KISS" HUH?"

"It's a start," Dawn breathed. "But I hope to see better results in the future."

* * *

**Well...I tried. This is my first attempt at a girlxgirl Pokémon story, so please don't be too harsh. I tried to make it sweet and I hope I didn't rush it too much. But it is just a one-shot. I might make a full sapphirepearlshipping story in the future (not continuing from this) so look out for it. Please tell me your thoughts. Again, hope you enjoyed.**

**-IchigoHatake**


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